what is good

All through college, I found a lot of wonderful spots to sit and meet with the Lord.

My bedroom, on the floor right beside the closet door.

Our back porch with the Christmas lights turned on.

By the lake down at the intramural fields.

Each of these spots hold significance for me. I can tell you specific things the Lord taught me in each one as I asked some tough questions, prepared for big things, and just met in the quiet. While I love (and miss) each of these places that will always be so precious to my heart, I've found that the Lord speaks to me quite clearly in one more place...

Chickfila.

Praise God for chicken nuggets and sweet tea! But really... I've written many a school paper, many a blog post, and lots of curriculum from the booths of Chickfilas across the southeast. (I pick very selectively which booth I'll take based on the plugs.) In high school I sketched out the cover of our national-award-winning yearbook on a napkin at Chickfila. In college, I won a haiku contest and got a free pair of chacos for my work that happened at... you guessed it, Chickfila. It's a good place. Maybe there's something inspiring about the tea.

So here I am today in the corner booth, happy to be back here and hoping to get some good time in. I went for a good run this afternoon and now I'm here, writing, hoping for a little inspiration. Maybe it's "do something nice for yourself" day. :)

This morning before I headed to work (yes, on a Saturday...) I read these words:

"At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone."
-Titus 3:3-8

It seems to be a theme for me recently-- that we as believers are to be devoted to doing good. And hear me right, we do good not to gain salvation, but as a result of our salvation. No amount of good we could ever do would be enough to earn salvation for us. If you could gain salvation on your own, then it wouldn't be a story of grace. God's gift of union with Him in our lives wouldn't be as sweet if we felt we deserved it. We don't. We never will. But He loves us that much anyway.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast."  -Ephesians 2:8-9

But if we've received that gift, then we should naturally be spurred on to do "good works" and to live a life that pleases the Lord. Yes, we will continually mess up, and yes, there is grace in that. God knows the motives of our hearts and He knows the difference between us messing up because we are imperfect and us continually choosing to walk in sin.

"What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?" -Romans 6:1-2

"Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for; through the fear of the Lord a man avoids evil." -Proverbs 16:6

I've heard it said that if you got hit by a semi truck, everyone would be able to see the effect of that in your life. It should be the same way when we truly encounter the Lord. At this point, we should be living with the goal of constantly doing what is good, not only to please God but also to paint the picture of our life change for others. So the question then becomes... How do I know what is good?

Remember in my last post how I told you I was going to go back to that study of John 16:8? The more I have been seeking and learning about that passage (with the help of a little study time with my mentee!), the more I have come to realize that I wasn't exactly spot on about the last part of that verse. What I had written was still good, but I think it means something more along these lines:

"[When the Spirit comes, He will convict the world] in regard to judgement, because the prince of this world now stands condemned." -John 16:11

If you back up to the beginning of time when Adam and Eve were walking in the perfection that was the Lord's presence in Eden, you may remember that a crafty little serpent tried to tell Eve to eat some fruit. And I'm pretty sure it wasn't because he was concerned about her health... But one of the things he says to her (in Genesis 3:5) is that if she eats, she will be like God and will be able to know what is good and evil. And she fell for it. Awesome. (Although if you think about it, it's the first lie she'd ever heard. What reason did she really have to weight whether or not it was truth? She'd never known that anything could be false...)

And so from that point forward, we have been defining what is good and evil from Satan's standards.

What this verse in John is saying is that when the Spirit comes (for us this means when we enter into a relationship with Christ and His Spirit comes to dwell within us) then we will once again base what is right and wrong off of God's standards, because He has defeated Satan. The prince of this world (Satan) now stands condemned. Jesus put him in his place while He was on the cross, and because of such, we now know what is good and bad based off of the promptings of the Spirit.

That's why those who are in Christ are told that we will be hated by the world (John 15)-- because our standards at their core are entirely different from the world and in light of such, our actions should be wholly different as well. Do good. Hate evil. (Romans 12:9) It's all over scripture.


So I realize this is getting lengthy, but let me ask you-- are you doing what is good? Are you hating, truly hating, what is evil? And are you doing such in such a way that the world around you can notice, not to bring yourself attention and glory, but so that they might see Christ visibly at work in your life?

I'm out of sweet tea and it's beginning to get crowded in here, so I'm off. Think on this for a little while... I know I will continue to.